


When Opposites Attract

by celticheart72



Series: SVU and the Occult [2]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2018-08-25
Packaged: 2018-11-22 13:10:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11380854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celticheart72/pseuds/celticheart72
Summary: Rafael Barba has always been practical and logical, the occult was never something he thought he'd believe in. Until Katie Jackson came into his life as first a consultant then a victim. Now a year and a half later he seeks out her help in her new occult bookstore and the connection they had initially grows.





	1. Needing Help

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel to ‘Touched By Evil’

It had been a year and a half since Lewis Williams had kidnapped and raped Katie. She’d made the decision to move on with her life and start using her gift again. Sometimes it was a curse, but more often than not she did a lot of good with it. The paranormal society she previously worked with was ecstatic to have her back especially since people with her gift were fairly rare. Katie had also finally opened the occult bookstore she had been wanting to open for years, and for six months it had been doing quite well. Despite moving on she’d continued to live with Amanda, the friends needed each other and being roommates worked well for them for the time being.

Katie was putting away some crystals and books she’d just received in when she heard the bell over the front door. She knew who it was without turning around, she knew his energy, and right in that moment it was sad and chaotic. Turning around with a smile she found him standing near a bookshelf at the front of the store fingering the spine of a book on demonology looking lost. He was dressed as she was accustomed to seeing him, in a dark brown suit with a cornflower blue tie, and she could see the outline of his suspenders under his suit jacket.

He didn’t even hear her when she approached, “Rafael? How are you?”

His expressive green eyes shot up to hers and he smiled. The smile went to his eyes but she could see the sadness she felt from him reflected there, “Hi Katie. You look good.”

“Thanks,” she watched him look around the shop in obvious discomfort. “Did you want to talk to me?”

“Yeah, can we…” he waggled a finger around the room.

“Sure, we can talk in my office, let me get my assistant out here,” she reached out to his forearm and motioned him toward the hallway that led to her back office. “Last door to the left.”

Watching him walk to her office she couldn’t help but appreciate how he filled out his suit, but she had to wonder at the sadness she felt from him. Katie moved to the office behind the front counter where her assistant Natalie sat behind the computer in there answering emails. “Hey Nat, can you come out front? I have a consult.”

Natalie smiled and took her black rimmed cat eye glasses off, “The cute suit I saw walk in?”

Katie rolled her eyes but nodded as Natalie got up and moved out to box Katie had been emptying when Rafael walked in. Once she knew the front was covered Katie walked back to her office where she found Rafael sitting in the chair that sat in front of her desk. He was staring at the front of the desk and had his left ankle over his right knee which was bouncing.

“How did you know about this place?” She asked him as she closed the door then sat down at the desk.

His eyes found hers and he sighed, “I asked Detective Rollins where you were. You were the only person I could think of to ask.”

She could feel his roiling thoughts but nothing that told her what the problem was. Sighing she looked at him, “Rafael, I can’t read you right now. Your thoughts are too chaotic.”

Tears had formed in his green eyes then as he looked at her, and his words came out in a rush, “My abuelita passed away a few months ago. It was my fault, I tried to put her in a home after she broke her hip and needed rehab, and my mother is devastated. I know you said you don’t channel dead spirits but do you know anyone who might be able to connect my mother and I to my abuelita? She needs…we need closure.”

Sudden understanding dawned on her and she leaned forward and reached out one of her hands. Hesitating for just a minute he finally lifted one of his hands and rested it in hers. She felt his sadness even stronger then, along with his uncertainty, and his unwavering faith and trust in her. Katie hadn’t realized the impression she’d made on him during the short time they spent together after her ordeal with Lewis Williams but apparently he felt the same connection she had.

“Rafael, I said I don’t channel dead spirits, not that I can’t,” she told him.

He looked confused at that and motioned his other hand for more information, she should have realized considering his nature he’d want to understand.

Taking a deep breath she smiled again, “You know I hear chatter and what touching people does to me.” She watched him and when he acknowledged that he remembered what she told him she continued, “Well I also pick up strong leftover emotions from objects or places. If I touch something like a knife used to kill someone I may either feel the emotions and thoughts of the killer during the act or be able to see a vision of the act. It’s not just bad acts, if I touch something that carries a strong positive emotional attachment the same thing may happen. And it can be the same by walking into a place that has strong residual emotion or where a violent act took place. That makes me a sensitive and at risk to malevolent entities. Connecting to spirits for someone like me is safest when we have a counterpart who believes in us and whose faith is strong, it keeps us grounded to the living plane. I do it on rare occasions during haunting and possession investigations when it’s necessary to save a human life.”

Rafael looked disappointed and started to say something but she squeezed his hand which she still held.

“For you though, I’ll do whatever I can to connect to your grandmother,” she told him with a smile and she could feel waves of gratitude and relief from him.

“Thank you,” he said simply with a slight smile then pulled his hand back and sat back in his chair looking at his bouncing leg. He was silent a few seconds before he started telling her what happened. “She passed in her apartment sitting on her bed. After she broke her hip the doctor wanted her to go to rehab, she wanted to go home to her sixth-floor apartment in a building without an elevator, and my mother wanted to retire and move in with her to take care of her. I’d found a good nursing home for her to go to and we were packing her apartment up. My mother had gone over there and found her already passed on her bed.”

Katie nodded, “Did you keep her apartment?”

He nodded, “Yeah, for now. Mami couldn’t give it up yet so I told her I’d pay the rent on it until the current lease was up.”

“You’re a good son,” she told him sincerely and watched him drop his head as she felt him shift from sadness to shame.

“No,” he almost whispered, “I’m not.”

“I doubt your mother feels that way,” Katie told him confidently. “I’d like to go to her apartment and see what I feel there and we can decide from there what to do.”

Rafael nodded, “Okay, Saturday might be best if that’s okay with you. I can get Mami away from her school and I can work Sunday instead.”

Katie smiled for him, “Yes, Saturday works. You still have my number?” She watched for his response, his eyes lifted to hers and he nodded. “Text me the address and what time you and your mother can be there.”

He nodded and stood up, but paused before following her out of her office door, “Thank you Katie.”

She turned to him, “Rafael, you believed in me when no one else has except for Amanda, you supported me through everything I went through. I’m happy to be able to help you in some way.”

Rafael smiled at her, the smile going to his eyes and lighting up his face and she followed him back down the hall and watched as he walked out of the front door of her shop. Katie went to the front counter where Natalie was standing with a smile on her face and she rolled her eyes at her younger assistant.

“He’s hot,” Natalie grinned at her.

Katie sighed, she couldn’t disagree, “Yeah.”

“How do you know a hot ass suit like that?” She asked Katie with waggle of her eyebrows.

Shaking her head Katie laughed, “Not like that. He was the prosecutor in my rape case.”

When Katie decided to move on with her life and not let what happened to her rule her she also decided she wasn’t going to be ashamed of what happened because it wasn’t her fault. It happened, it would always be part of her life, and by talking about it she continued to heal and hoped that someday her words might help another woman going through her own trauma. Dating was hard though, she’d tried a few dates but the fact that she was a rape victim tended to be a major turn off, more so than saying ‘By the way I’m a clairvoyant.’

Natalie gave her a meaningful look, “Huh, I didn’t expect that. Y’all have some serious chemistry.”

Nodding Katie dropped her chin into one hand and sat on the stool behind the counter as she looked out the front door, “Yeah, it’s been there since the day I met him. That was interesting, he was a little condescending at first until I proved to him that I’m not a quack.”

“Really?” Natalie was looking out of the door too watching people walk by on the sidewalk.

“Yeah, he was surprisingly kind and supportive after that,” she said wistfully.

Turning her head Natalie looked at her closely, “You have a crush on him.”

“Ha! I seriously doubt a man like that would want me. I’ve got a gift that’s a curse and he knows every intimate detail of my rape,” Katie told her.

She felt Natalie’s hand on her shoulder and Katie turned to look at her while she spoke, “A man like that who does what he does really cares and I have a hard time believing he’d hold that kind of thing against you. Pretty sure he’d just see you as a woman, not a rape victim.”

Katie’s eyes cut to Natalie’s and she had to admit she was probably right. She’d just have to wait to see what happened.


	2. Dinner Before Ghost Hunting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rafael and Katie meet for dinner to discuss the occult.

Katie received a text from Rafael at around 6 that same evening while doing some research on a house haunting case she had been asked to look into. It was looking more like the family had a case of an occult fascinated teenager rather than a true haunting. She shook her head, more often than not there was a logical explanation for what people perceived to be a haunting or possession. True cases were rare and generally the people affected didn't understand the nature of what was happening and didn't know to ask for help. When they realized they needed help and finally did ask for it unfortunately in her experience it was on the verge of being too late.

Setting aside her research she opened his text message.

_Rafael: My mother believes that spirits are more active at night so she wants us to meet her at Abuelita's at 8p.m. Saturday. Does that work for you?_

Katie had to laugh, why was it that people who had no real knowledge of the occult believed that?

_Katie: That's not actually true, but yes that works fine._

_Rafael: Would you like to have dinner beforehand? I'd like to talk some more about this. Mami has all these ideas and I'm not sure I believe half of them._

Smiling to herself Katie bounced around in a psuedo happy dance until she sensed Amanda walk in the room and felt her cheeks pinken.

"Have you got ants in your pants?" Amanda asked and let Frannie off her leash.

Katie laughed, "No, your ADA just asked me to have dinner with him to talk about ghosts."

Amanda quirked an eyebrow and dropped on the couch next to her while Frannie jumped up on the chair opposite them and laid down. "Is that why he asked where to find you?"

"Not exactly, he wanted me to help connect him and his mother to his grandmother," Katie told her and realized she hadn't responded to Rafael yet.

_Katie: Your mother is Catholic right? How about at 6?_

"Huh. Really?" Amanda looked skeptical.

"Yeah, I was kind of surprised. I get the impression he carries a lot of guilt from her death," Katie was telling Amanda when her phone pinged and she looked down at it.

_Rafael: She is, why? 6 is fine._

"I didn't think he did guilt," she snorted.

Katie looked at her and rolled her eyes, "Geesh Amanda, he's not a heartless robot. He treated me with dignity and respect."

Amanda held up a hand, "I know, I know. He's just a hard-ass on the squad."

Looking back to her phone she typed out a response to the aforementioned ADA while Amanda got off the couch to go to the kitchen.

_Katie: Catholics have a different world view on anything occult. Just let me know where to meet you._

_Rafael: That's an interesting way to put it. Meet me at Forlini's? Abuelita lived in the Bronx so you can ride with me from there to her apartment and I can drop you at home when we're done if you'd like._

Amanda sighed from the kitchen, "We need to go grocery shopping. It's slim pickens in here."

Katie laughed, "Let me get my jacket, we can go now."

She walked back to her room reading Rafael's last message and smiled. Forlini's was quiet and intimate.

_Katie: Sounds good, see you then._

After sending the text message she grabbed her jacket and headed out to the corner market with Amanda so they could restock their sad refrigerator.

That Saturday afternoon Katie agonized over what to wear to meet Rafael for dinner that would also be appropriate for a consult afterwards. She settled on a pair of black skinny jeans, black ballet flats, and a hunter green lightweight draped boatneck knit top with 3/4 sleeves. At 5:15 she made her way over to Forlini's. Since it was only a 30-minute walk she got there 15 minutes early and found Rafael sitting in a booth near the back of the bar area with a file spread out in front of him. Walking over to the booth she smiled as she felt his ever-present racing thoughts. The sadness she felt earlier in the week was still there but not as strong as it had been.

"Hi Rafael," she said as she slid into the booth across from him.

She could feel his thoughts switch from racing over his work to genuine happiness to see her as he smiled at her. "Hello Katie, how are you?" He moved the file to his briefcase which she noticed was next to him as the waiter came to take their drink orders. Rafael ordered a scotch and a glass of water and Katie asked for a Coke.

"Not bad. Your thoughts aren’t as sad tonight,” she told him with a smile.

He smirked and chuckled a little bit, “Abuelita was the one who believed in me when I was young, it’s been hard not having her here. I love my mother but she believed in one of my childhood friends more than me and still thinks it’s my fault he’s not Mayor of New York City.”

“Oh,” she exaggerated the word for emphasis, “Alex Munoz. When he first started campaigning I knew something wasn’t right with him, I wasn’t surprised by what he did. I’m sorry he hurt you and…Eddie?”

Rafael’s eyebrow winged up, “That is really unsettling Katie.”

She huffed a short laugh, “I’m sorry, it kind of is for me too. For some reason your thoughts come through to me very easily, I can’t explain it.” She held up a hand, “But let me be clear that I’m not intruding into your mind, what I get from you just comes to me. Like we have some kind of open channel.”

He was giving her a calm speculative look and she could feel his thoughts moving over all the reasons why she could so easily read him when he kept his emotions and thoughts so close. “Perhaps a conversation for dinner another night?”

Katie’s heart jumped in her chest at that proposal, “That sounds like a…” What? Plan? Da…

“Date?” The man in front of her finished her thought with a cocky grin.

“Uhm,” she hesitated, unsure if he was serious or teasing.

“If you’d like it to be that is.” He said motioning a hand over the table as she wondered if he was reading her and was sure her expression was surprised and puzzled. He was chuckling lightly, “I don’t have the ability you do. I’ve been a prosecutor for a long time, I learned to read people.”

Katie grinned at that and she was starting to think Rafael had come into her life for an entirely different reason than what either of them initially thought. “A date would be nice. At least you already know about the two things that chase guys away these days and you’re still sitting here.”

His expression was stoic but his thoughts turned a little agitated at what he thought men held against her.

Her shoulders bounced and she rolled her eyes, “It is what it is, I see and hear things and I’m a rape survivor.” She’d accepted a long time ago that dating and intimacy would be difficult because of her abilities alone, adding Lewis Williams on top of that made it harder but she wasn’t letting it rule her life.

The waiter came back then with their drinks and took their dinner orders.

Rafael was watching her as she spoke to the waiter. “I’m sorry for what happened to you,” he finally said when the waiter left, his thoughts were sincere and it was clear he was a man who never took advantage of a woman or her weaknesses.

“Rafael, we didn’t come here to talk about what happened to me, you know that story already. I think you’re stalling on the subject that did bring us here,” she told him with a wave of her hand and a smile. The entire time she’d been sitting there she could feel him wavering on how to start the conversation he’d wanted to have, hesitating to bring it up.

He looked sheepish then and his green eyes met hers, “You’re probably right. I just don’t know where to start. My mother has been on the internet day and night trying to learn everything she can about spirits, heaven, crossing over, whatever she can think of, ever since Abuelita passed away.”

Katie snickered, the internet wasn’t always the best source of information on things like this when you didn’t know what was real versus a charlatan trying to take advantage. “Did something happen to start that other than your grandmother’s passing?” Katie asked, it wasn’t something she would expect a person to do unless they had some indication the deceased persons’ spirit had remained behind.

“Mami said she just felt like Abuelita was still there,” he told her and took a drink of his scotch.

Katie thought about that and nodded, “It’s possible, sometimes if a spirit has unfinished business they’ll linger.”

His brow furrowed and his lips pursed as he thought about that, “I don’t know what kind of unfinished business she could have had.”

She took a deep breath and looked at him a minute before responding, “It could be a lot of things but based on some of the things you’ve said I suspect perhaps to repair a rift between you and your mother?”

He looked startled by that and his mouth opened and closed a few times. She could feel his confusion and thoughts racing over conversations he’d had with his grandmother over the last year about his strained relationship with his mother. And she could feel it when his thoughts settled on the logic of her suggestion. “You might be right.” Rafael looked into his glass then and swirled what was left of his scotch around a few times, “This won’t put you at risk will it?”

Katie shook her head, “No. When we get to your Abuelita’s I’ll walk around the apartment and into each room to see what I feel. I take precautions whenever I do any kind of supernatural investigation. If I feel anything malevolent we can decide what to do then, but I don’t expect that I will.”

“Malevolent?” He asked with raised eyebrows, “Does that happen often?”

“No, it’s pretty rare actually. I’ve run into a few malevolent entities, I stopped doing this for a while because of one but normally hauntings are no more than a spirit that has some unfinished business. And to be completely honest, true hauntings are rare on their own as well. Most of the time there’s a logical explanation for what’s going on,” she waggled a finger at him. “Like the spirits being more active at night thing. Totally wrong. People tend to believe that because you’re more alert at night for things that are out of the ordinary. So if you hear a weird noise at night that you can’t explain someone who believes in ghosts so to speak will jump to believe it’s supernatural. They never think maybe it’s a pipe shifting, foundation settling, a squeaky board, something like that that you could hear during the day too if it were as quiet as it is at night.”

Rafael was snickering then, “So it really didn’t matter when we went to Abuelita’s?”

Katie shook her head and smiled at him. She could feel by his thoughts that he was captivated by her and intrigued by a subject he had never been interested in before meeting her.

“What happened to make you stop doing something you seem to be so passionate about?” He asked as he downed the last of his scotch.

She pressed her lips together and looked at the table while she contemplated what to tell him. It wasn’t something she wanted to revisit but she didn’t want to lie to him or hide anything from him either. “It was a demonic possession case, the inhuman spirit I’d told you was more evil than Lewis Williams. Exorcisms are never easy. Best case scenario the victim is saved with little repercussions to them, worst case scenario the victim dies and their soul is damned with the demon. Unfortunately, the latter scenario is what happened. I suffered some of the after effects and the blame which led me to a psychic breakdown.”

He started to say something but their dinner came then and she made a point to steer their conversation to other subjects. Rafael told Katie about his childhood in the Bronx and while he mentioned Alex he mostly talked about Eddie when he spoke of friends. He talked about his time at Harvard and his early years in private practice before he went to the DA’s office. She laughed when he told her about his first case with Manhattan SVU and Adam Cain choking him with his own belt. Rafael listened while she told him how she first figured out the voices in her head were real and not some manifestation of mental illness. She admitted that her realization came when faced with commitment to a new mental hospital Amanda had hugged her and Katie started responding to Amanda’s thoughts without realizing Amanda wasn’t speaking out loud. Katie told him that Amanda had been the only person growing up who had believed her, believed in her, and she still felt to this day that most people just thought she was crazy. She talked about her work with the paranormal society and the case she was currently investigating.

They had talked so long that by the time Rafael paid the bill, after refusing to allow Katie to pay for her meal, it was nearly 7:30 and he was sure they would be late getting to his Abuelita’s. He drove as quickly as he could over there, but traffic in New York City being what it was at all hours of the day and night delayed them until 8:15.


	3. Abuelita's Last Wish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katie meets Lucia and they figure out what Rafael's Abuelita wanted from them. Rafael and Katie have a heated moment.

**Rafael’s POV**

Lucia met Rafael and Katie at the door and opened it wide for them to come in as he introduced his mother to Katie. She didn't walk in with him though and he watched as Katie wrapped a colorful looking rosary around her right hand and crossed herself with it in hand. He thought both the crossing and the rosary were odd, neither was like what he was used to, but decided asking her a question every time he didn't understand something while she was essentially working wasn't the best option. Since he was taking her home he figured he'd just hold his questions until then knowing his mother would ask plenty while Katie was there. Looking over at his mother he realized she was looking intently at the rosary in Katie's hand and could see the wheels turning in her head.

"That doesn't look like any rosary I've ever seen," she said making Rafael rub his hand over his forehead.

"Mami, she's not..." he started but Katie just smiled and held up her hand that the, whatever it was, was wrapped around.

"That's because it's not a Catholic rosary Lucia, I hand made it with an amulet of protection and crystals for that purpose," she told his mother.

Rafael rolled his eyes at his mother's expression, "Just let her work Mami."

Katie stepped inside of the apartment and just stood at the entryway for a minute with her eyes closed and her head tilted back with her hands at her waist as is to steady herself. Lucia pushed the front door closed and Rafael watched as Katie opened her eyes and looked at him.

"I don't feel anything malevolent but there's definitely a presence here," she told them, then motioned her left hand toward Abuelita's bedroom. "It feels as if the presence is in that direction so I'm going to walk through the other areas first, outside of where I feel it, and then move to where I do. You're both welcome to walk with me, just don't touch me at any time."

Lucia frowned and started to say something but Rafael put a hand on his mother's arm and shook his head. While she did roll her eyes at him she kept quiet and followed him when he moved to keep Katie in his site as she walked into the few rooms of the apartment. She walked into his Abuelita's bedroom last and stopped in front of the bed while she looked around. As he watched she closed her eyes and brought her hands in toward her chest before she turned and sat on the edge of the bed. Katie’s eyes remained closed while she sat there and his mother stood there staring at Katie with her arms crossed over her chest.

“What is she doing Rafi?” Lucia whispered.

He raised an eyebrow at his mother and shrugged his shoulders.

“Catalina is still here. She wants to go to the light but can’t because she feels like she failed you both,” Katie was saying quietly.

“Failed us? How?” Rafael asked her, he couldn’t imagine anything further from the truth.

Katie’s hands shot out faster than he could track and she grasped one of his hands then snatched his mother’s hand as well. He was suddenly overcome with a flood of emotions and memories. A little league game where Lucia was cheering Alex on while Rafael stood back behind the fence. A thirteen-year-old Rafael standing up to his father to stop him from hitting Lucia and taking the blows meant for her instead. An eighteen-year-old Rafael upset that Yelena broke up with him while Lucia told him she was meant for Alex. A twenty-two-year-old Rafael telling Lucia he was going to law school to stand up for those whose voices were lost. Law school graduation where his Abuelita was there to support him while Lucia was at Alex’s graduation. His father’s funeral where he held his mother’s hand while she cried for the man who had made her life miserable for as long as he could remember. The last argument he had with his mother where she blamed him for Alex sexting a fifteen-year-old girl ruining his mayoral chances.

They were seeing his Abuelita’s memories, not their own. He didn’t even realize she was there for some of them. That brought him back to the present when he heard his mother’s sharp intake of breath. “Rafi! Oh my god. Have I really been that awful to you?”

Their connection to Katie was broken when Lucia put her hands on his shoulder and turned him toward her. He hesitated long enough for Lucia to draw her own conclusions.

“I have, haven’t I? That’s why you distance yourself from me,” she whispered to him.

He noticed Katie stand and move through the bedroom door. Cutting his eyes back up to Lucia he shook his head, “It’s okay Mami.”

She was shaking her head and tears were in her eyes, “No mijo, it’s not okay. I’m so sorry.” Lucia turned toward the bed where Katie had been sitting, “Mama, I’m sorry.”

There was a swirl of cold air around them both, almost like a hug, and then it was gone.

Rafael looked at his mother who had her eyes closed with tears running down her cheeks. “She’s gone Rafi, I don’t feel her anymore.”

“Maybe she just wanted to make sure we didn’t keep hurting each other,” he told her.

Lucia nodded, “We should go and thank your friend.”

When they walked back out into the living room they found Katie leaning against the kitchen counter facing them with a smile on her face. “Sometimes it’s a simple enough thing for a spirit to get their message across and move on into the light. Since she can’t be here any longer Catalina wanted to be sure the two of you knew what you were doing to each to each other. She didn’t want to leave this earth while the two of you weren’t seeing eye to eye.”

When Lucia walked up to Katie and pulled her into a hug Rafael raised an eyebrow and looked at Katie with some concern. He was aware she wasn’t overly fond of being touched when she wasn’t the one to initiate the contact. Rather than push Lucia away Katie actually looked like she settled into his mother’s hug and she smiled at him. Her smile actually made his heart melt a little bit and he was finding he wanted to be the one holding her.

Lucia pulled back from Katie and smiled at her, “Thank you mija. I don’t know if that was some very clever trickery or if it was all real but either way, thank you for opening my eyes.”

Katie dropped her head a little and Rafael could see a small smirk play about her lips.

“Mami, I’m going to get Katie home, it’s getting late.”

“Okay mijo,” she hugged Rafael tighter than she had in a long time. In his ear she whispered, “I like this one. Try to keep her around.”

He chuckled, “Okay Mami. I love you.”

She cupped his cheek with her hand, “I love you too.”

**Katie’s POV**

Rafael placed his hand at the small of Katie’s back and led her out of the apartment and back down to his car. He opened the car door for her and before getting in she hesitated and looked back at him. She didn’t realize he was so close to her and when she turned her head their lips very nearly brushed against each other.

“I…oh!” She squeaked when his lips met hers and a swarm of emotion overwhelmed her. Katie wasn’t entirely sure if the emotions were all hers or Rafael’s too but she felt desire, tenderness, confusion, happiness, sadness, and a million other things. When she felt Rafael’s strong hand wrap around the back of her neck to pull her closer to him the desire ramped up over the rest and she grasped his shoulders and pressed herself closer into him. She didn’t have much experience with men and really didn’t anticipate having this reaction to Rafael especially after what happened with Lewis Williams.

He stopped his assault on her lips and rested his forehead against hers with his eyes closed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that without asking first.”

“God don’t apologize for that Rafael. If I hadn’t wanted you to kiss me I would have stopped you not tried to crawl into you,” she laughed.

Rafael looked a little sheepish, “My touching you doesn’t bother you?”

Katie smiled at him, “No, it’s never bothered me. I feel a connection to you that I’ve never had with anyone else. You actually make me feel safe and grounded.”

He looked like he didn’t entirely believe her and pulled a lock of her hair between his fingers, “You are a conundrum Katie Jackson.”

Smiling she tilted her face so she could catch his bottom lip between her teeth quickly then run her tongue over the spot she bit him to sooth the sting away. “Maybe that’s a good thing for us both.”

Grunting he moved back to let her slide into the seat before closing her door. She watched him walk slowly around to the driver’s side door and if she were to guess she suspected that last nip she gave him aroused him and he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable. To the contrary if that were the case, considering he knew what Lewis Williams had done to her, it made her feel wanted and sexy rather than scared and dirty. He paused just a minute outside the driver’s door before he opened it and sat down next to her with a smile that melted her heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize it's taken so long to update. Rest assured I am not abandoning this fic. Unfortunately I just don't have as much spare time as I did when I originally started this and my other fics. So while I don't plan on letting it go as long as it did this time, updates may be around every 3-4 weeks.


	4. UPDATE

I know several people have asked if I am continuing this fic. There hadn't been a lot of interest in it and I lost motivation. But I will work on chapters to close out the storyline so it's not just hanging out there unfinished. It might take me some time to get through it but I will. If you're interested and still reading thank you! :)


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